


Faithful and Mad

by sage_theory (papersage)



Category: The Tomorrow People (1992)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-14
Updated: 2010-03-14
Packaged: 2017-10-08 00:01:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/70616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papersage/pseuds/sage_theory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set during <i>Monsoon Man</i>, Megabyte's POV on the scene in the ship when Adam decides to go after Lucy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faithful and Mad

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Ladyslvr for supplying the transcribed dialogue from the scene.

He already knows what he wants to say, so the minute he's in the Ship, he's talking. And he's already got it planned, how he'll tell this story, as to get the maximum amount of worry and outrage out of Adam so he'll go fix the situation. He isn't too upset yet, a little worried, a little anxious, but upset. No. He's got Adam, the emotional Swiss Knife at his disposal.

Adam can fix this really quickly, Megabyte just has to give him the nudge he needs to do it. Otherwise he'll stay out of it. Megabyte has lost two friends because Adam stays out of things. Having Ami be the third is way too much, like Megabyte is edging a cliff and Ami's absence would send him a mile over. Too much caring and attention and *emotion* invested in Ami to let her go now.

"Huh, what a way to start the day. I mean, all I wanted was a cup of coffee. It's not like I was asking for a three course breakfast," Megabyte says. Adam isn't paying attention. No, Adam isn't always interested in what he says or what he gripes about. That's par for every course, *ever*. But at least he perks his head up and acknowledges that Megabyte is ranting.

He isn't asking for love and kisses, but ignoring him is just not polite. Not to mention disturbing. Alert the media. Here's the latest CNN headline. Friend has problem: Adam *doesn't* care.

Or even bigger than that. Adam has a problem of his own. He's looking at the floor, but it's obvious that he's not seeing anything. This is Megabyte's bail out point. Time to put on some humor and see if it'll shake things loose.

"Hey, I thought I was gonna come here and be the miserable one."

They're still there. Adam is still doing that very frightening looking disturbed thing he's been doing for the last few minutes. Megabyte still has a problem, and apparently now so does Adam. The boat is sinking and this whole situation is screaming mayday mayday mayday.

"Guess ya beat me to it."

There goes humor. Which leaves Megabyte feeling naked in lots of ways. It also means that his day has gotten a lot more complicated. Now to solve his problem he's got to solve Adam's. He's just very afraid of what Adam's problem might be. Something big and unfixable.

But he can't not try. And even if he can't fix, he can't *not* care that Adam is not being Adam right now. Losing Ami is the push that gets him over the cliff. Losing Adam would be the fall that breaks him.

"Forget about me and my troubles. Adam, you wanna talk about it?"

Adam isn't talking. Now the big red alert button in Megabyte's head has been pushed, repeatedly. There is a big, scary silence and the real fear that Adam is broken and he's lost everything. Something very bad has happened, because Adam doesn't get catatonic like this over every little thing. Or *anything*, *ever* that Megabyte has seen before.

This whole day is broken. He needed coffee and finds out he's been exiled from Ami's life by her mom. He needed to fix that and finds out Adam is now off in emotional-disaster-land.

Still, he's not panicking. Fringe benefits of having been in bigger emergencies. Like being tied to a chair by government agents, or having a friend in a bee-hive, comatose because of an mad scientist. This, maybe, can be turned around.

Then Adam's face turns to him, still creepy and not *seeing* him. And he starts telling him, just a hollow voice, distant and narrating, like the person in front of him is just the puppet because Adam has left the building.

Too creepy and Megabyte really needs Adam to do something he understands. Like get mad.

"So that's it, huh? Ya lost your girl. Yeah, I'd say a definite case of chef chez la femme," he says and knows *knows* that it's almost 100% guaranteed to piss Adam off. And he understands anger. Not likes it, but anger makes sense. He can deal with angry Adam. Angry Adam would be so good.

"It's not funny, Megabyte," Adam answers, more hurt than angry. And no maybe that wasn't a good idea. At all. Instead of the angry Adam he wanted, he got this hybrid, mutant angry/wounded/sad Adam.

So, the making-Adam-mad idea sucked. But he's got plenty of others. Like maybe if he presents Adam with a picture of the world where this Lucy thing isn't that big. Maybe a map, where Lucy is just a little tiny dot on a little tiny island in the middle of gigantic sea of other things that Adam could be worried about.

Like, say, the fact that Ami's mother has laid down the edict of "no more Tomorrow People".

It's not like this is a big deal, really. Your date dumps you. Fine. Nothing to *scare* your best friend over.

"Well, no. You musta made quite the impression on her. Yeah one date with you and she packs her bags and leaves. Just a slight hint, perhaps," Megabyte says.

He doesn't even get the angry/hurt/sad Adam this time. No, now he's back to brooding Adam, who's gone back inside his own head.

And that very creepy, not-really-there voice is back, too. "It wasn't even a date. I mean. I took her to the newspaper office to get her interview."

Okay, time to wade back into this and see if he can rescue Adam from the mile-deep, sticky emotional *muck* he's face down in. "What happened?"

"That's it! The newspaper office. The guy she met there. Bishop. He might know where she is!"

It's almost as quick as teleporting. He's now back to the Adam that Megabyte loves and gets dragged behind. He's the good old let's-get-to-the-bottom-of-this-follow-me-I've-got-a-plan Adam. Megabyte's turned things around, and they're going nowhere that he likes.

It kind of makes him dizzy. "You don't give up do you?"

Adam is almost manically happy and eager when he looks Megabyte straight in the eyes and says, "Well I can't. I gotta find her!"

And he's gone. He doesn't even ask Megabyte to come with him because, Megabyte realizes, he assumes it. When did this happen, that Megabyte was automatically part of Adam's adventures, whether they were really Megabyte's problem or not?

In front of him sit a hundred really good reasons to let Adam just do this by himself. This is not his job. Not his responsibilty. Not his problem. Not his business. Not his place. But, he's going to anyway. Because his place *is* somewhere either behind or beside Adam, somewhere in the storm.

He doesn't know anything else. He doesn't want to know anything else. He needs Adam and Adam needs this.

"Boy you got it bad."

And he follows right on Adam's heels.


End file.
